Buffalo Chicken Salad

My friend Jamie and I visited one of our favorite Bloomington restaurants - BuffaLouie's - the last time we were at Indiana University for recruiting with the company we work for. Well, ever since I was down there and had their Buffalo Chicken Salad I have had seriously intense cravings for it! This is my attempt at re-creating the salad, since no restaurant in Madison seems to have anything that rivals it!

A little digging on the BuffaLouie's website says that their sauce comes 'direct from Buffalo, New York'. Well, wing enthusiasts know that the true buffalo wing sauce uses Franks Red Hot, and that the Anchor Bar in Buffalo is one of the original wing joints. So, looking for an authentic wing sauce recipe I browsed the Anchor Bar website and saw that their Medium wing sauce had cayenne pepper, vinegar, salt, garlic and margarine. Low and behold, the Franks Red Hot Original sauce has those exact ingredients. All I needed was to add margarine.

The next feat in recreating the salad was the chicken. Jamie had her salad sans breading. I, however, needed something fried (to hold on the sauce, of course!). So, I turned to the highly rated Chicken Fried Chicken recipe from Allrecipes.com for my recipe. For those looking for a shortcut, I have used Tyson's breaded chicken breasts in other salad recipes, which you can find in the frozen food section.

The result - a FABULOUS salad that totally satisfied my craving for the spicy, crisp BuffaLouie's Buffalo Chicken Salad. Give it a try!

Ingredients for two medium-sized salads:

For the Chicken (adapted from Allrecipes.com):

• 1 boneless skinless chicken breast, pounded flat
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 15 crackers (Ritz is what I used)
• 2 tablespoons dry potato flakes
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 egg, lightly beat in a separate dish
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

For the Sauce:

• 1/4 c. Franks Red Hot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce
• 3 Tbs Margarine, melted

For the Salad:

• 1/2 head iceberg lettuce, torn or cut
• 1 carrot, peeled, and thinly sliced (think julienned)
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar
• Crumbled blue cheese, to taste
• Ranch or blue cheese dressing
• Croutons

Directions:

1. Prepare the chicken - In a ziploc bag, crush the crackers, add potato flakes, seasoned salt, pepper and shake to combine.
2. Lightly dredge chicken in flour, then into egg, and then into the cracker mix. Shake to coat.
3. Cook chicken in saute pan heated with vegetable oil and set aside on paper towels to drain. When cool enough to handle, dice chicken and set aside.
4. Make the wing sauce - Melt the margarine. Combine with Franks Red Hot sauce. Set aside.
5. Assemble the salad - Place lettuce, carrots, celery, cheddar, blue cheese, and chicken in salad bowl.
6. Drizzle the wing sauce over the chicken and lettuce. Top with ranch or blue cheese dressing and croutons!